Topography charts new trial path

Why it matters: The clinical trials landscape is dominated by a few expensive and slow-moving studies run largely by elite, hard-to-access academic medical centers.

• Studies tend to over-enroll affluent white patients, meaning their findings aren’t relevant to the wider population.
• Topography Health is focused on community physicians who have historically been overlooked by the traditional drug testing process.

What's happening: Trial sponsors are increasingly looking to recruit patient populations that include more people of color, people with lower incomes, and people with mobility issues.

• One way to address this: Conduct trials remotely, such as through video visits, in-home testing, and data collection.
• Remote trials have their own issues, including clunky procedures and potentially invalid data.
• Instead of doing trials remotely, Topography is betting on community physicians to recommend and help personalize research for their patients.
• “We see the physician as the lynchpin,” Topography cofounder Alexander Saint-Amand tells Axios. “We can identify physicians in communities that traditionally haven't had access to research, and our job is to build trust with the physician.”